You don't read a lot of stories about the punter.

That's because most punters are afterthoughts on their own teams, relegated to six or seven plays a game. Most punters aren't viewed as legitimate draftable prospects by talent evaluators. Most punters don't have the athleticism to play other positions at the D-I level, and few seek contact after they boot the ball away. And few punters have almost universal respect up and down the roster.

Simply put, most punters aren't Sam Foltz.

The junior is a self-made success who Monday parlayed his years of hard work into the newest addition to Nebraska's trophy case, winning the Eddleman-Fields Award, annually given to the Big Ten's best punter. Despite playing much of the season well below 100 percent, Foltz led the conference with an average of 44.4 yards per kick, 15 times burying the opponent inside its own 20-yard line.

But limiting Foltz's story solely to statistics doesn't do it justice. Yes, Foltz's ability helps flip field position nearly every Saturday, but he also inspires his teammates, helped Nebraska land the latest in a long line of successful kickers, and has a great shot at continuing his craft at the next level.

This much we know - Sam Foltz is not your average punter.

***

In his best-selling book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that the key to achieving world-class skill in an activity requires 10,000 hours of practice. If that's true, Foltz has to be nearing true excellence.

The Grand Island, Neb., native began perfecting his craft when he was five years old. His family lived on a farm and fall was harvest season. When young Sam got home from school every day, his father was busy with farm chores, his mother was working and his brother was at football practice. Left to entertain himself, Foltz simply picked up a football and started booting it across the property.

"It's kind of a weird story I guess," Foltz said. "Run it back and punt it again. We live on two or three acres back home, so there's plenty of yard to play with. That's literally what I did."

What began as a boredom eraser developed into a love. After exiting the bus around 4 p.m., Foltz would typically kick for three or four hours at a time. He would punt until suppertime, wolf down his dinner, then head back outside until darkness arrived.

As he grew older, Foltz began inventing challenges for himself. Different parts of the farm became barometers for distance or obstacles that he had to kick over, helping him to refine his game.

"I would say, 'I want to work on my hang time, so I'm going to punt this ball over the house,'" Foltz said. "We had a tree about 30 yards out, so I'd try to punt over the tree knowing that would be a 45 or 50-yard punt. I just had to create unique ways to see where I was at and where I was progressing. It's pretty unique, but it was something fun for me to do."

It also became a pricey venture for Foltz's father, Gerald. Sam would kick the balls until they wouldn't take air anymore and he estimates he ran through six or eight footballs each fall. But Gerald was happy to foot the bill, a decision that has paid off nicely for Nebraska.

As impactful as his leg was, Jeff Tomlin doesn't remember Foltz for his punting ability. The Grand Island High School head coach used Foltz as both a wide receiver and safety, and says Foltz is one of the top five players he's mentored in his 29 years of coaching.

"I thought he was the best safety in the state his senior year and there were a lot of programs that wanted him to play safety," Tomlin recalls. "He's probably the best free safety I've ever coached, and I've been blessed with some really good ones. He's a really good receiver as well. He ran a 48.54 in the 400 meters. You don't see too many punters doing that.

"Pretty much whatever you needed Sam to do, he could do. He could have played linebacker. He probably could have filled in at running back for us."

Foltz was a fine receiver at Grand Island, catching 39 passes 686 yards and 10 touchdowns from current NU teammate Ryker Fyfe as a senior. But his true love was hunting down opposing ball carriers, and few in the state were better. Foltz totaled 144 tackles and nine interceptions over his final two high school seasons while earning all-state honors as a punter.

His affinity for contact was on full display last Friday, when Foltz drew a personal foul penalty for hitting an Iowa returner late after one of his punts.

"I love to hit. I love to come down and fill holes," Foltz said. "I kind of miss being able to go out there and hit someone. But I take great pride and I've got a pretty sweet gig with what I'm doing right now. I'm just embracing it and I love what I do."

Added Tomlin: "You wouldn't probably figure that a punter was a great tackler, but he was a great hitter and a great tackler."

Foltz drew offers from South Dakota State, Nebraska-Kearney, South Dakota and others, but his love for Nebraska had already taken root. He grew up either watching or listening to every Husker game on the radio, so when NU offered a walk-on spot, Foltz jumped at the opportunity.

"I knew deep down that I was going to win the job and I was going to do big things here, and no one was going to stop me from achieving my dream," he said. "I was told multiple times that I couldn't do it by a lot of people. I wrote it down in a notebook and said, 'Watch me.' Here I am trying to prove them all wrong and prove Nebraska made a good decision to let me walk on here."

***

Midway through the 2012 season, which Foltz redshirted, his father made a light joke about Foltz transferring. Normally good-natured, his son bristled at the comment.

"Get your plane tickets lined up for next year," Foltz told his father. "I'll be starting."

He was right. The starter from day one in 2013, Foltz averaged 41.6 yards per kick and sent 16 punts at least 50 yards.

But Nebraska realized what Tomlin had at Grand Island - Foltz had the ability to be more than a punter. During spring ball of his redshirt freshman season Foltz was practicing with the offense's second unit and felt he had a great chance to contribute as a receiver.

But then-special teams coach Ross Els called Foltz into his office one day and told him that he was too valuable on special teams and the Huskers couldn't risk him getting hurt at another position. It was time to become a full-time punter.

"I had to switch my mind over to that and decide that I was going to be the best punter in the country and work on that," Foltz said. "That was a tough moment for me. I still expressed my feelings that I wanted to play a little offense or play some defense or even run down on kickoff, anything to help the team. At the end of the day, it's worked out for me well and I love what I do."

But Foltz found it difficult to completely abandon his safety tendencies. He would sprint downfield after his punts, hunting down the ball carrier just as he had at Grand Island. He had three tackles in his first two seasons and even forced a fumble last year against Iowa before being instructed to back off.

"Last year I think they kind of started getting a little wary because they know the guy that I am, I'm going to try and lower my head and knock some guy out, but that's not a good thing if you're not very deep at the position," Foltz said. "They told me to cool it a little bit."

Hard as it was for Foltz to accept, it's difficult to find fault in Nebraska's decision. He was even better as a sophomore, averaging 42.2 yards per kick and trapping foes inside the 20-yard line 18 times. Nebraska's opponents attempted just 16 punt returns all season, the third-fewest in the Big Ten.

The hard work paid off for Foltz before that sophomore season. He was sitting in his room watching a Kansas City Royals game when he got a call from then-assistant coach Jeff Jamrog, who informed Foltz he was being put on scholarship.

"I broke down in tears. I'll never forget it," Foltz said. "I still get goose bumps thinking about it because it was something I worked for my whole life and I finally achieved it."

***

That honor came as no surprise to Jamie Kohl, founder of Kohl's Professional Camps and one of the nation's most well-known experts on special teams play. Foltz had been attending Kohl's camps since he was a junior at Grand Island, but after his redshirt freshman campaign, it was obvious he'd taken a leap forward.

Kohl was conducting a camp in Omaha and Foltz was serving as a counselor. During a demonstration, Kohl noticed a massive improvement in Foltz's flexibility and his attention to detail. The punter's potential skyrocketed in Kohl's eyes, and it's only continued to rise since.

"There are a lot of guys that work hard, but they're not 100-percent in," Kohl said. "With Sam, punting and playing for the Cornhuskers are some of the most important things in his life right now. Some of the other things with college, sometimes that supersedes football with some guys. I don't think that's the case with Sam."

Foltz got to show off the results of that hard work this July at Kohl's National Elite Camp, which hosts roughly 120 of the nation's top specialists each year. It also draws a number of NFL players, including Arizona's Chandler Catanzaro, Indianapolis' Pat McAfee and Foltz's idol, New Orleans punter Thomas Worsted.

Competing against 61 of the country's best punters, Foltz finished the two-day camp with a score of 123.34, the second-best mark at his position. He placed first in one three-round competition that forced the combatants to blend both distance and hang time.

"I think Sam Foltz is an NFL draftable player," Kohl said. "I think he has the potential to get drafted next year if he has a really good senior year, and I don't say that very lightly."

Sam Koch would agree with that sentiment, and he knows a thing or two about the matter. The former Nebraska punter has started for the Ravens since Baltimore selected him in the sixth round of the 2006 draft, becoming one of the NFL's highest-paid punters this past offseason.

Koch saw much of himself in Foltz, so the Seward native had a surprise for Nebraska's punter near the end of June. Foltz was simply lounging around home when he received an out-of-the-blue text that floored him.

"It said, 'Hey Sam, this is Sam Koch. I'm going to be in town for the next week and a half and I wanted to know if you wanted to come punt and work out with me,'" Foltz said. "I couldn't believe it and I was like, 'Who's screwing with me here?'"

Koch follows Nebraska closely and recognized Foltz's strong leg. But to truly reach the elite level, Koch believed Foltz needed to improve his consistency, his attention to detail. Despite his overall strong play, Foltz was a bit prone to shanks during his first two seasons.

"You watch the top golfers in the world and you see them hit the ball right down the fairways and right on the greens," Koch said. "They try to make every shot count, and it's the same way with punting. Every punt counts because you have on average four punts per game, and every one counts to help create that field position for your defense.

"It's one thing to look at the ball and go punt an oblong ball, but to see it and know where you're going to hit the ball. It's simple things like that. You just have to pay attention to the fundamentals."

Koch invited Foltz out to Concordia University to work out and wasn't surprised when the pupil showed up 15 minutes early to the first session. The two worked out three days for three or four hours at a time, Foltz constantly picking his mentor's brain.

"It was an unreal experience for me," Foltz said. "It was like a quarterback getting taken under by Peyton Manning. Sam Koch is one of the best in the NFL. Anything that he had to say I was open ears and I wanted to learn as much as I could."

Koch made it clear to Foltz that he had NFL-level ability, but to reach the pros he needed to improve his attention to each and every punt. Koch taught Foltz the importance of locking in on every aspect of every kick and saw growth from the younger player in each of their sessions.

"What I saw in his work ethic I see in myself," Koch said. "He wants to go out there and become the best and do whatever he can to get to the next level.

"His personality, his attitude, everything he brought to the table was just like something I would recognize from a Nebraska football player."

***

Kohl admits that many specialists develop an "elitist" mentality. Separated from the rest of the team for most practice sessions, some kickers and punters get the feeling that they are different from their teammates, above the grunt work and physical drills performed by the rest of the squad.

Foltz is not one of those players. He is a rare breed in today's game of football - a punter that draws universal respect from the team and has a real shot at being named a captain next season.

"He's not a 'me' guy. He's a team guy," Kohl said. "Sam is blue collar, and I think that resonates with a lot of his teammates and they respect him for that."

Sophomore Husker kicker Drew Brown recognized Foltz's leadership immediately. Foltz was Brown's host during his recruiting visit in 2013 and "was a huge reason" why he ended up choosing Nebraska.

"He's been a huge growth to my development mentally and physically. He's a huge part of everything I do," Brown said. "He's someone that I could immediately trust as soon as I got here.

"And it's not just the specialists, it's the whole team too. He's one of the best leaders we have. He easily could be one of the captains this year and next year. He works his butt off everyday, whether it's practice or weight room or running. He's a huge leader not only to us, but for the team as well.

Much of that is due to Foltz's work ethic. Tomlin said Foltz was one of Grand Island's most dedicated players in the weight room and would spend "extended periods of time" after practice working on his punting and receiving.

"He comes from an agricultural background and putting in extra work was the expectation in his family," Tomlin said. "It just kind of became second nature to him. I don't think he really gave it a second thought just based off of how he was raised."

Kohl agrees, adding that Foltz completely bought in with the specialist fraternity formed at his camps.

"He's willing to get in the car and drive three or four hours if I need some help or he wants to get some work," Kohl said. "That's the type of attitude you want to coach. It's not like I'm begging him to come out. He's always calling me, being proactive."

Foltz said there is no secret to becoming well-liked as a specialist. All he's done is shown up, worked hard, respected everyone and let the results speak for themselves.

"I've always been a leader by example," Foltz said. "I've always been the guy who's going to be 15 minutes early. I feel like I've put in the time and a lot of guys respect that and respect what I do. I try to be friends with everyone and try to give everyone my full attention when I'm talking to them. I don't make a lot of enemies.

"Having a whole bunch of your teammates respect you as a punter, that's a huge confidence boost to go out there and perform even better for them."

***

One way to earn that respect is playing through pain. Most specialists don't get this opportunity - kickers and punters are rarely contacted, so their odds at getting injured are slim to none.

But Foltz was one of the unlucky few in the season opener this year. During the third quarter against BYU, lineman Jerald Foster knocked down one Cougar, who rolled into Foltz's plant leg and sent the punter to the ground writhing in pain. He had to be carted off the field and was told in the training room that he probably would have been better off breaking his ankle than spraining it this badly.

Fortunately the injury wasn't as devastating as initially feared, and Foltz missed just one game. But he clearly wasn't himself against Miami, averaging just 39.7 yards on his seven punts, four of which went 40 yards or fewer. Foltz admits now that he was "maybe 50 percent" healthy for that contest.

"There was not a whole lot that was going to keep me out of playing in a game like that," he said. "(The injury) was obviously devastating, but I just said, 'Watch me. I'm going to get back as fast as I can.' I just put my mind to it and I spent seven to eight hours a day in the training room just doing whatever I could, bugging the heck out of those guys."

That mindset is what has earned Foltz the respect of his teammates and what makes his honor as the Big Ten's best punter all the more impressive. Foltz says he didn't feel fully healthy until about four weeks ago, meaning he was performing injured in seven of his 11 games.

"Being in my third year of starting here, I feel like I've experienced it all and I'm more of a vet," Foltz said. "In tough situations I'm a lot more relaxed. I feel like I'm being a bright spot when there needs to be a bright spot. When someone needs to make a play I'm making plays for the defense and trying to get the offense out of trouble."

NFL teams rarely use draft picks on punters - just one was selected in 2015 - but Kohl is convinced Foltz could become a draftable player, and Koch agrees that he likely has an NFL future.

Foltz certainly wants to play in the league if the opportunity comes, but he's not going to stress himself out with those thoughts just yet. He's still got another year at Nebraska, and he's approaching the NFL the same as he has in every other situation - he'll do his best and let the results speak for themselves.

"My whole life all I've asked for is a chance," Foltz said. "I asked for a chance to walk on here. I asked for a chance to prove I can punt at this level. When my career is done here, all I need is a chance to prove I can punt at the next level.

"I'm going to give it my all just like I've done my whole career and we'll see what happens."